Walking in the dark

The main reason I go on history walks is because I love history. But local history walks are also a way of getting a sense of place, of connecting with the streets and other spaces around my home. I also meet people on the walks I've met before, another way of being connected, of feeling part of a community.

Yesterday I went on a walk following the route of a Zepplin raid 99 years ago through Leyton and Leytonstone.

We started at 7 pm in the evening, due to finish at 9 pm. David Boote, our walk leader, times his walks and then times by three for the time he expects the led walk to take. Yesterday's walk took longer than expected,

We were expecting some people to leave early, especially as some people wouldn't manage the distance. So at 9.50 20 people had reduced to David and 3 followers, walking in the dark across Wanstead Flats. The ground was very uneven. I have problems going downwards when I can't see where I am placing my feet, so on the dips in the ground, David stopped so I could put my hand on his shoulder before I stepped down. We found one dip with reeds in, but luckily as I was wearing my work shoes, partly thanks to the quick draining surface of that part of the Flats, it was dry.

At the end of the walk one of my male companions praised me for coping without making a fuss. It would seem rather sexist, but, if he doesn't know hikers, etc, all the women he knows could easily be the type who couldn't cope with rough terrain in the dark.

I was brought up in the country so used to rough ground. And little light. The village I was brought up in had only 3 street lamps (according to my mother - I can remember only one). In winter I used to walk along an unlit, mile-long lane with my head in the air, following the light black of the sky against the dark black of the trees on top of the Cornish "hedges".

We then had a quick drink and caught the 58 bus home. A bus home at that time of night is one of the advantages of country living in the city!

No bees this morning

I was out working in the garden this morning. It was overcast but dry. As I packed up to go in to get ready to go out I realised that I hadn't seen any bees or hoverflies, not even on the marjoram which is usually a favourite.

A little while later when I looked out of the bedroom window I did see two bumblebees. But having had bumblebees and hoverflies earlier in the season it is a bit worrying about their scarcity now.

Sorting t-shirts by joy!

I've just been reading The Life-Changing Magic of  Tidying by Marie Kondo. One of her methods is to sort through ones possessions, handling each one, and asking oneself "Does this give me joy?" and getting rid of everything that gets the answer "no".

One should start with all one's clothes tipped out of the wardrobe, the cupboards, and anywhere you have stashed them. I am doing section of clothes by section of clothes, and got rid of 10 scarves to the charity shop this week. Today was the turn of my t-shirts.

I had 4 caches of t-shirts - and later realised I had forgotten the cardboard drawer on the top of the wardrobe with black and white t-shirts in.

I have to also consider usefulness when deciding what clothes to chuck - I don't think a single pair of trousers give me joy!

I was amazed by how many polonecks and rollnecks I had in t-shirt type material. They're all too short for me to wear them on their own (with my tummy I prefer long tops) but I have kept them to wear under cardigans and jumpers and will watch carefully over the winter to see which ones I actually use.

I've discarded a lot of the long, round-necked t-shirts with short sleeves but kept those with long sleeves. Again these must be watched carefully to see if they really are 'useful'.

I have 14 for the charity shop and 2 for recycling. A little disappointed but a far greater get-rid-of rate than my normal sorting efforts. Also I've now got similar t-shirts together so they should now be easier to find.

Jumpers and cardigans next.

Litle bit of this, little bit of that from the garden makes a salad

Out with friends today so I cooked some small lentils yesterday evening. This morning I went into the garden and got some rocket, chives, broad beans, swiss chard and my first (two, very tiny) tomatoes, cucumbers and some raddish seeds and made a really nice salad.

I added some oil from a sundried tomato jar and some olives.

I forgot I had some basil in a pot in the conservatory as I would have added some leaves of that!

The cucumbers are Iznik greenhouse cucumbers from the Organic Gardening catalogue, at their best when only 7-10cm long. I have two outside and two inside the conservatory. Will definitely get these again for next year.

My friends and I had our packed lunches sitting in the garden by Waltham Abbey alongside long flower beds full of cornfield flowers. It was a very pretty show, and the bees and hoverflies were taking full advantage of it.

log store overflow

Here is the log store with the extra pile at the front of it!

I hope a cat doesn't want to climb it - it'll all come down!

I've put some opened out thick plastic sacks over the front pile, weighted down with broken clay roof tiles. I hope they survive the wind forecast for Friday night/

I will look for a small tarpaulin at the DIY store. And I will also keep my eye out for a medium-sized pallet.

logs are hard work!

I had a day off last week and I had arranged a log delivery from a tree surgeon. The 30 bags of logs were due to arrive between 11.00 and 1.00. At 1.00 I rang to see what had happened to them. I was rung back at 2.00 to be told the guys on the lorry had the morning work down for the afternoon!

New delivery time 4.30 to 6.30. They rung at 5.45 to be tell me they were so far behind they could not deliver that day.

I had today off work so arranged a new delivery time in the afternoon as I had the osteopath in the morning - 1.00 to 4.00. I arrive home just before midday today to find the front garden full of logs!

It took me 5 1/2 hours to get them through the house and stacked (3 trips per sack - 30 sacks).

I knew my new log store wasn't going to take as many logs as the pallet I used to use, but thought the sides would mean no sloping sides so more logs for the ground space. Was disappointed with how much I couldn't fit it. I had some metal grids I use to protect the vegetable beds from cats and foxes, and put those on bricks in front of the store and loaded logs on them.

I will load the picture of the log pile on another post as having problems adding it here!

Hover flies in a poppy

Three hover flies in one of the last opium poppies this morning.

The opium poppy is in a strawberry planter. All the strawberry plants survived the winter in one planter and they all died in this one!

Every year I scatter seeds in the flower beds and every next year they pop up in the vegetable beds and a few here and there - and rarely ever in the flower bed